1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to terminology databases.
2. Related Art
Within a company, there may be specific terms (i.e., terminology) used to describe the company. This includes descriptors about services and goods offered by the company, requests to users, such as entering specific user information, internal information for use by different areas of the company to perform tasks or to obtain a better understanding of other areas of the company, commonly used acronyms, and terms to be used by third party developers, partners, or designers to create applications or other content for the company. With all the ways that different words or phrases can be used to describe something, different areas of the company may use different words or phrases to describe the same thing. This may even be more likely with third parties outside the company. Many disadvantages or problems to the company may result.
For example, if different terms are used within a company website to describe the same thing, the user may become confused or view the site in a negative way due to the lack of consistency and could result in increased customer contact and customer service costs for the company. Improperly used descriptors may be used that could cause legal issues for the company, such as when a certain term or phrase used in a particular context may give rise to an unintended legal obligation for or legal statement by the company. Another area of concern is with companies that have constantly new or emerging areas, with associated new descriptors. Other areas of the company may be unaware of this and misinterpret or misuse these new descriptors. In addition, outdated terms may be inappropriate descriptors for new or re-named products and services. Such terms should be avoided, which may not accurately describe the products or service or imply an older product or service is still available or applicable. Words that are slang or commonly used internally may also be inappropriately used as descriptors.
Yet another area that could be improved is translating or defining terms or phrases. Translation is very costly. The more time linguists have to spend researching terms, the more it costs. Also, if terms or phrases have to be retranslated, then cost increases. Outside translators may not fully understand the company's business, which may result in too general a translation, an inaccurate translation, and/or high costs to provide an accurate translation.
Therefore, a need exists for managing terminology used by a company that overcomes the disadvantages above.